I am Anna, a service user of FGC for my mental health. I found that the person-centred approach gave me the freedom to express myself through my creativity.
One of the fundamental aspects of the FGC is the way in which it has an open structure allowing people to hold their conference in a way that makes sense to them. I was given the freedom to pick where to have the conference, who to invite and include, as well as choosing the points for the agenda with my coordinator. The points for my agenda were decided prior to my conference to ensure I got to discuss everything I wanted to cover, whilst tapping into my creativity.
I am a creative person with a particular interest in photography. In the meetings with my coordinator before my conference, I talked a lot about my love for photography, having studied it and hoping one day, upon recovery, to work within the photography industry. Since my mental health declined, I had done little photography but turned to one of my other interests to get out my feelings- writing poetry. I had been thinking of creating a photography project featuring my poems about my mental health struggles and emotions to portray how I had really been feeling inside and how I was struggling. I wanted to create this for myself but also wanted to create it to one day show to people so they could better understand my experience. I find it hard to verbally express my feelings and have a tendency to self-isolate when I am struggling which can often leave my loved ones unsure of how I really am.
In a meeting prior to my conference, my coordinator asked me if I had been doing any photography, knowing that this was a big interest to me. At this point, I explained my project idea to combine my poems with photographs (self-portraits) to explain my mental health issues. My coordinator felt this would be a great project for me and one that could be useful to show to my family in my conference. I agreed and this was added to my conference agenda as a way to show my family how I had been feeling. My coordinator offered me help and encouragement in the weeks leading up to my conference which helped me to remain motivated to create the project. Motivation is something I have struggled with due to my mental health and burn out, so this helped to keep me on track.
In the end, I created a book from my project which I chose to get printed. I overlaid a selection of my poems over my self-portraits to visually and poetically describe my experience with mental health. My family looked through the book with me at my conference in time set aside for it so that my family could start to get a deeper and wider understanding of how I had been feeling. My family were proud of me which gave me a boost, but they also felt they understood me a bit more after seeing my project. In the weeks after my conference, I showed the book to my wider family, allowing them to also understand my struggles in a way they didn’t have the opportunity to before, especially as my wider family do not live close by and therefore have rarely seen my struggles firsthand.
As well as my photography project, I was able to also use my creativity for solutions from my conference. I discussed my daily struggles with certain tasks being stressful and difficult, as well as struggling with energy levels. My family knew of these problems but said they often find it difficult to know day to day how I am. My family and I came up with ideas on how I could communicate this in a non-verbal, creative way as I often isolate and find it hard to verbalise how I am feeling. In-between my conference and first review, I created a visual printed poster in which I can put my daily energy levels and daily ‘match’ levels (each difficult task for me is referred to as a ‘match’) represented as batteries and potion bottles up for my family to see, so without speaking they know how I am doing on a day-to-day basis. I had fun creating this as I was able to decorate and create this system with my favourite themes (nature, astrology and witches) and in a way that makes sense to me and my family. This improved my family’s day to day understanding of how I am and how much I can cope with every day.
As the FGC is person focused, unlike many other services, it provides the unique opportunity for people to find solutions with their loved ones and practitioners that benefits and makes sense to them as a person. It helps people to feel valued, more powerful in their care and understood. This brings the opportunity for more effective care as the person is listened to and the solutions found, fit with the persons individual struggles and daily life.